A radar apparatus and an automobile including the radar apparatus are provided. The radar apparatus may measure the elevation/declination angle of a target with high accuracy by using simple circuits at low cost without use of a detection circuit and an AD conversion circuit having high time resolution. A transmit antenna transmits transmit signal waves modulated through the multilevel FSK, and receive antennas receive reflected waves obtained by reflecting, off a target, the transmit signal waves which return. The multilevel FSK is used as a modulation method so that the beat frequency between the receive signal waves from the target and the transmit signal waves serves as the Doppler frequency. Thus, the elevation/declination angle φ of the target is calculated by a computing unit, not from the frequencies of the receive signal waves as in the related art, but from the frequency of the transmit signal waves.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A radar apparatus comprising: a signal generator configured to generate a transmit signal subjected to shift keying to multiple frequencies; an array antenna configured to transmit signal waves, and to receive signal waves, wherein a beam of each of the transmit signal waves is inclined by an elevation/declination angle corresponding to one of the shift keyed frequencies of the transmit signal, and each of the receive signal waves is a reflection of a corresponding one of the transmit signal waves off a target; a mixer configured to convert frequencies of the transmit signal waves and the receive signal waves into intermediate frequencies; and a processor configured to: compute an elevation/declination angle of the target from the frequencies of the transmit signal waves, generating a plurality of multiplied signals by multiplying a voltage of each converted transmit signal wave with a voltage of a corresponding converted receive signal wave, calculate a distance to the target based on a phase difference between the multiplied signals, and calculate a relative velocity with respect to the target based on frequencies of the multiplied signals, wherein: each antenna of the array antenna is in a same plane, the array antenna comprises an antenna power supply point and a plurality of patch antenna devices connected to the antenna power supply point, the plurality of patch antenna devices being arranged linearly in a first direction, and each of the plurality of patch antenna devices has a different phase.
2. The radar apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to calculate an azimuth angle of the target based on a phase difference between the receive signal waves.
3. An automobile comprising the radar apparatus according to claim 1 .
4. An automobile comprising the radar apparatus according to claim 2 .
5. The radar apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein each of the plurality of patch antenna devices is spaced apart at an interval d, and a phase η 1 of a signal wave transmitted from a corresponding one of the plurality of patch antenna devices is: η 1 = 2 π d ( m - 1 ) λ ( f ) - 2 π ( m - 1 ) = 2 π ( m - 1 ) ( d - λ ( f ) ) λ ( f ) where λ(f) is a wavelength of the signal wave in a substrate at a frequency f, and m is a number of the plurality of patch antenna devices.
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March 4, 2020
January 25, 2022
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